The Last Unicorn, GWing Style!
by Czarina of the Cosmos
Summary: The rating will change. For the moment, it is where it is because this is tame. It won't stay that way, though, and if you don't know what "shounen ai" or "slash" is, then you probably won't be that interested anyway. Not for long at least. Please rev
1. Story of Epyon

Note: fanfic is sansmusical numbers. Gomen nasai. Also, I'm first introducing

a bit of made up mythology that was originally intended only for my own entertainment

(history and math for an hour and a half each. You figure it out), and to aid me 

in an RPG I was playing with. Ah, here goes.

_____________Prologue

Poseidon's handsomest creation was the love token he 

contrived for Demeter. The harvest queen had always repulsed his rude wooing, 

and fled him down inland ways, until one day he presented her with the most beautiful 

creature ever seen on Earth. It was the horse, which delighted the goddess 

and made her change her opinion of Poseidon. It had taken him many trials to 

make the horse and he cast aside his unsuccessful attempts: camel, hippopotamus, 

giraffe, donkey, zebra. It was also in his attempt to create the horse that Poseidon 

made and discarded the unicorn. They were too pure, too white, too dangerous, and far 

too beautiful. They were made with stolen stars, twisted into ivory horns, and sea 

foam spun into main and hoof. It was as if there was something overly extraordinary 

about the creatures, and he brooded. In turn of mood and with hasty, irrational hand, 

he cast the beasts away from him into the sea where they could drown. 

But they did not. Even though they had been intended for land dwelling, they 

had been made with the wild foam from the sea, and so they survived the waters and traveled 

away from Greece. Once across the sea, they branched away from each other. Some traveled 

to Africa, into Arabia, into China and to the islands of Japan, and a few into Western 

Europe: England, Ireland, and France.

As the millennia passed, each evolved to its surroundings. The Chinese K'i-lin 

and Japanese Kirin developed scales and colorful plumes of flesh, resembling dragons. 

Those in the desert turned black from the sun and their horns turned crimson. Those in 

the quiet green forests of Western Europe remained white and pure, and hid in their trees 

and meadows, away from the growing population of man.

Hunts for them were ceaseless. The cleansing, healing power of a unicorn's horn 

was much desired in an age of mutinous courts, assassins, and paranoid kings. The 

last unicorn, after freeing his fellows, was at some point robbed of his horn. His 

immortality wounded he was changed to a human form, grew old, and died. He had felt 

love, and regret, and was so far removed in mind and spirit from the other unicorns, 

his soul was specially regarded by the powers that be, and was allowed to move forward 

in the circle of life, to be reborn into the future.

It was late afternoon and the forest floor glowed in the light that filtered 

down from gaps in the canopy. Two dogs ran ahead of two horses, topped by two young men, 

each equipped with bow and arrow, and the elder with a sword. The first stopped, looking 

around with cornflower blue eyes that sparkled with barely hidden amusement. He ran a 

gloved hand back through his wavy bronze hair, and whistled sharply to call back the dogs. 

The younger stopped and looked over, icy eyes flashing, clear in the hazy late-day air.

"What is it?"

"I mislike the feel of these woods," the elder said, looking off to his left. 

"What are you on about, Treize?"

"Creatures that live in a unicorn's forest learn a little magic of their own 

in time; mainly concerned with disappearing." The younger man merely raised a thin blonde 

eyebrow.

"Unicorns? I thought they only existed in fairy tales. This is a forest, like any 

other-" he paused, giving the clearing a look about, and turned his horse around to face 

the other, guiding it forward until he closely faced his friend. " - isn't it?" Treize 

merely motioned around as he responded with a graceful tone.

"Then why do the leaves never fall here? Or the snow? Why is it always spring here?" 

He reached over and gently cupped the other man's chin. "I tell you, Zechs. There is one 

unicorn left in the world, and as long as it remains in this forest, we'll find no game to 

hunt here." Zechs merely sighed, nodding, as Treize let his hand drop away and moved back 

to the reigns on his lap.

"Let's turn around," the blond said resignedly. "Hunt someplace else." They both 

urged their horses silently forward, and took off at an easy trot the way they had come. 

Before they exited the ring of open space in the canopy, Treize turned back at the waist, 

one hand resting on the back end of his saddle. 

"Stay where you are, noble beast! This is no world for you. Stay in your forest and 

keep your trees green and your friends protected. Your strength brings peace, but may you 

keep it here. And good luck to you, for you are the last." With that, the two road off 

again, and the dogs rushed ahead.

In the cooler greens shadows of thicker leaves, a delicate white, cleft hoof picked 

its way past harmless brush, and stopped bare inches away from the beginning of dusky sunlight. 

Expressive eyes of green ringed with blue stared after the two young gentlemen, and a lovely 

white head dipped inquisitively to the side.

'The last?' the unicorn thought. 'I am the last there is?' He darted nimbly back 

into the cover of trees, feeling at once naive and very old. 'That cannot be. Why would I 

be the last?' He effortlessly vaulted a thin clear stream running between soft grey, rounded rocks. 'Oh, but what do men know?' he thought reproachfully, walking almost sullenly into darker trees. 'Just because they've not seen unicorns for a while doesn't mean we've all vanished! We do not vanish.' He exited the deep green blue underbrush and strode into the clean light that poured down over a small hill that rolled down to a large pond. 'There's never been a time without unicorns. We live forever!' Stating the facts to himself seemed greatly to reinstate his sense of permanence, and fuel his incredulity towards the two young men from earlier. 'We are as old as the sky, old as the moon!' He lifted his head towards said heaven and it's bodies, and his horn glinted delicately in the dusky sunlight. 'We can be hunted, trapped; we can even be killed if we leave our forests, but we do not. . .vanish!' He paused a moment, tipping his horn gently to the grass, feeling suddenly off-center. 'Am I truly the last?'

A merry voice broke through the immortal's thoughts, and a sandy auburn peppered 

butterfly, marked by two emerald circles on each wing, fluttered about the princely creature's 

horn as he lifted his head.

"Wave the flag for Hudson highborn show them how we stand! I am a roving gambler- 

how do you do?" The unicorn danced on his delicate hooves a moment in delight. 

"Hello, Butterfly, welcome!" The unicorn was thrilled at the presence of one he 

could speak to. "Have you traveled very far?"

"How far would I travel?" the butterfly serenaded, "To be where you are? Clay lies 

still but blood's a-rover!" The fluttery creature darted down around the unicorn's eyes and 

forelock. "Red rover red rover let Charlie come over!" He backpedaled through the air. 

"Won't you come home Bill Bailey? Won't you come home?" He embraced the unicorn's horn, 

wailing a mournful tune. "My wild Irish rose!" 

The unicorn blinked, waving his horn lightly around, going still a moment- his voice 

was admonishing but kind. Almost friendly. "Have a little respect, butterfly! Do you know 

who I am?" The butterfly slid down the unicorn's horn and grinned cheekily into one lovely 

eye.

"Excellent! Well, you're a fishmonger!" He spiraled off towards the pond. "You're 

my everything! You are my sunshine- you are old and grey and full of sleep, you're my pickle-

faced consumptive Mary Jane!" The unicorn gave a single impetuous sniff. 

"Hardly. Say my name then. If you know my name, tell it to me."

The butterfly rested on the bending stem of a forget me not. "Your name is a golden 

bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name. . ."

"Say it, then." There was a pause as the butterfly lifted off the stem and swung 

around in the air a moment.

"Rumplestiltskin! Gotcha!" It laughed cheerfully. 

"I should know better than to expect some silly solo butterfly to know my name."

"And Solo is my own!" The unicorn turned away and began to walk back towards the 

trees, then paused. "Butterfly. . ." he barely turned his head back in the direction of 

the foolish little insect. "In all your wanderings, have you seen. . .others, like me? 

Have you seen even one?" 

"Oh have you seen the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man. . ."

The unicorn turned full around, a sudden sense of urgency rising in his throat. 

"Butterfly, even one? Tell me that you saw only one!" 

"One? One alone to be my own! To catch a falling star. . ." the butterfly called 

Solo fluttered dramatically about, reaching towards the far off sky with the tips of its wings. 

The unicorn turned disappointedly away. 

"It serves me right for even asking you. All butterflies know are songs and poetry, 

and anything else they hear. I guess you mean well. Fly away, butterfly." Cleft hooves 

picked gingerly at the edge of shadow.

"Oh I must take the A train, oh I am a cook and the captain bold and the mate of the 

Nancy brig." He skimmed the water and floated on the breeze. "Has anybody here seen Kelly?"

The unicorn gave a resigned inner smile and glanced over his shoulder. "I hope you 

hear many more songs! I must find someone who knows me, who has seen others like me." And 

with that, the forest's prince stepped into the shade.

But a studious, serious voice halted his movement.

"Unicorn." Old French, "unicorne". Latin, "unicornis". Literally, one horned: 

"unus", one, and "cornu", a horn." As the unicorn whirled to look again at the butterfly, 

the voice changed and it darted over to attach itself once more to the lovely spiraled horn. 

"A fabulous animal resembling a horse with one horn!" It turned soft in tone. "Visible only 

to those who search, and trust, and generally mistaken for a white mare. Unicorn!" It stated 

matter-of-factly. 

"Oh!" The young voice cried, white tail flicking excitedly. "You do know me! Please, 

all I want to know is if you've seen others like me, somewhere in the world!"

"See you later alligator! Close cover before striking." The unicorn turned, 

darting forward after the butterfly, feeling for the first time he could remember, desperate.

"Solo, have you seen the others? Where have they gone? Tell me which way I 

must go to find them!" The butterfly's voice shifted, changed, turned strange.

"No, no, listen. Don't listen to me, listen. You can find the others if you are 

brave." As he spoke on, the unicorn shivered slightly, eyes transfixed on the darting 

golden wings. "They passed down all the roads a long time ago, and the monster Epyon 

ran close behind them and covered their footsteps." The unicorn blinked.

"Epyon?" He asked, confused. "What is Epyon?" The butterfly sprang up in song.

"Hold tight, hold tight, hold tight hold tight!" But his voice shifted once again. 

"His firstling creature has majesty, and his tails are the tails of a wild serpent and his 

horns those of a great wild ox!" The unicorn blinked, eyes widening at the frightful 

description. "With them," Solo continued, "he shall push the unicorns, all of them, 

to the ends of the earth. Listen, listen, listen quickly!" The unicorn darted forward 

again, following the butterfly's erratic movements.

"I am listening! Where are the others, and what is Epyon?" But the butterfly was 

spiraling upward and away over the pond.

"Listen, listen! Haha! The king is in the counting house, counting out, counting 

out, counting. . ." He dipped below the horizon then back up into the sky, and Solo faded 

into the distance crying, "It's you or me moth! Hand to hand to hand to hand to hand 

to hand. . ."

The twilight white unicorn simply poised his head at an elegant angle, watching 

after the flittering thing as it disappeared from sight. 'He said I could find the other 

unicorns,' he thought. 'But. . .where? Or was all that talk of a red bull just some story 

or song?' He danced disdainfully away from the butterfly's last location, and on light hoof 

started back towards the forest. He paused on the hill's crest. 'But. . .what if there are 

others. .and they are in danger? What if I am the only one left, and all the others are 

somewhere, far away from me, in need of my help?'

They passed down all the roads long ago, and the red bull ran close behind them and 

covered their footsteps. He whinnied, starting suddenly towards the safe, warm shadows of

dusk that cloaked his forest. He continued through to the edge of the lush green, were the 

dirt started drier, and stretched on like a long road towards the far off horizon. He 

steeled himself against the idea of homesickness, thinking instead of the weighty 

importance of the task before him. He cast a lingering look over his shoulder, at the forest 

he knew and guarded, and was now leaving.

'I must go quickly, and come back as soon as I can,' he thought resolvedly, before 

taking off with a start towards the west.

______________________Chapter 1


	2. 

Disclaimer:. . . I SO don't own this.

______________________Chapter 1

It was odd, how time blurred together and seasons merged as the unicorn continued his journey. His eyes became tired, and his hooves felt heavy against the ground, be it covered with grass or loose rocks. The princely unicorn's encounter with man had been few and far between, and generally unexciting. It was peculiar, that mortal folk were so blind, much more so than they had once been.

There had been a time where one out of, he supposed, fifty people could recognize or suspect a white horse of being a unicorn. There had been a time where one out of perhaps one hundred would have been correct. But as he walked through the season, he had met many hundreds. Travelers, virgins, poets and children. And barely two had even given him a sideways glance that spoke of higher knowledge. Or intuition. One oafish farmer had even made an attempt to capture the unicorn with a leather belt. Dress you up and take you to the fair indeed! The unicorn had stewed over being mistaken for a white stallion for a good week or so.

"But maybe I'm wrong?" He asked himself, sitting now in the softer green grass that lined the rock strewn dusty brown road. A carriage with an old man guiding it passed, and he looked at the lovely white horse on the roadside.

"I had forgotten that men can not see unicorns," the unicorn mused silently. "If men no longer know what they are looking at, there may well be other unicorns in the world yet, unknown." He ducked his head against an uneasy feeling.   
And glad of it. "

Night settled and the ancient creature let his head rest next to the Earth. Things were strange. It was not the soft warm ground of his forest. It was foreign, and smelled of things other than rain and earth. But it was still soil. Still part of the greater home. He missed everything. . .

Mother Doro's Midnight Carnival rolled on rickety wheels to stop beside the sleeping prince. A short girl with a regal manner and a pretty face held one hand over her heart in sheer disbelief. 

"Well! Well bless my mystic eyes. . .I thought I'd seen the last of them. I thought they'd all been. . . ." She quickly stepped down from the foremost wagon. "You two! Come here!" Her oddly shaped albino crow fluttered down to rest on her shoulder. 

"If he knew. . ." she glanced towards the two approaching her. The first taller, and old. Pargan was a century if he was a day, she thought with some distaste. But the second. . .He looked alert as usual, though quietly so. Cobalt blue eyes and dark tousled hair. Handsome, if incompetent. "But I don't think I'll tell him," she cooed to her pet. "Some wizard I hired. . ."

"What on earth did we stop for?" Pargan demanded passively.

"What do you think it is, Pargan? What do you see lying there." The older man barely looked.

"Dead horse."

"You're a fool!" Dorothy hissed. But she composed herself. "But I knew that." She smiled sardonically at her wizard.

"What do you see wizard? What do you see with your sorcerer's sight. Heero stared, unmoving, silent. Stared at the graceful white animal that lay, tucked into itself, so oblivious and so beautiful. Dorothy was impatient.

"Answer me, you juggler!" She roughly grabbed his collar and pulled him down to her level- a whole of three inches, but she was impressive nonetheless.

"A- a horse," he stated quietly. "Just a white horse."

She laughed softly, long blond tresses fanning briefly behind her. "I thought so. Right. A horse. And I want it for the carnival. The last cage is empty."

"We will need rope," Pargan stated.

"The rope that can hold this horse hasn't been woven. We'll make do with iron bars."

Heero's eyes widened almost imperceptibly. "She's waking," he said calmly, but clearly.

"A simple sleep then!" Dorothy raised her hands and the two men stood back. "Ska gabritch! Kasta magnya! Nii tchai! Nichaul!" White ribbons flowed from her finger tips, casting their own eerie glow that melded with the white from the moon, and curled around the unicorn's head. It drew consciousness from the creature's eyes, and curled up from the center of its head to form a curved, smooth, steel colored horn. 

"Now," Dorothy said flippantly. "Cage her- no, him!" New excitement entered her voice. "Cage him now. He'll sleep till morning." 

Morning came with sudden intensity to the unicorn's sleep laden eyes. Green rimmed blue looked carefully about the sparse clearing that was the center of the carnival, understanding, but not wishing to understand, what had happened to him. The cars of the carnival were snaked around the clearing, some edging up on a field, others on trees that lead away from the road and towards the forest. A circle of grotesque fallacies.

"This here is the manticore. Man's head, lion's body, tail of a scorpion." Pargan waved a hand towards the first cage, while the attending villagers murmured. "Creatures of night, brought to light!" He moved on, commandeering a much practiced and very dry air of almost interest and fake enthusiasm. 

"Here is the dragon. Breathes fire now and then - mostly at people who poke it, little boy." He cast a cloudy glare to a small blond child, who scuttled back from the iron bars. "Its inside is an inferno, but its skin is so cold it burns! Speaks seventeen languages badly, and is subject to gout. Creatures of night, brought to light!" With the tagline said, he moved on once again to the next cart. " ...The satyr. Ladies, keep back!" 

At this point, the short, lean boy dressed in magician's garb padded silently up to the unicorn's cage. He gazed for barely a moment at the stunning white creature before him, then spoke, blue eyes guarded. But the unicorn could see through them.

"I shouldn't be here. But quickly, tell me what you see." There was no urgency in his voice, only confidence. But no tone of demand. "Don't be afraid. Look at your fellow legends and tell me what you see." The unicorn turned his graceful head towards the various other cars. With almost an effort, the princely creature summoned up a voice unused for seemed like ages. The soft tenor grated in his ears. He would wonder at the stiffness of his throat later.

"What he calls a manticore looks to be no more than a shabby, toothless lion. And she has them believing that poor old ape with a twisted foot is a satyr! Illusions! Deceptions! Mirages! Your Mother Dorothy cannot truly change things!" Heero regarded the unicorn a moment, nodding his head.

"Yes," he said almost slowly. "It's true. She can only disguise- and only for those eager to believe whatever comes easiest." The two watched each other, listening as Pargan went on.

"The midgaurd serpent. It's got the whole world. . ." Another evil glare to the blond boy, who made no attempt to poke it. "In its coils. . ."

"No," Heero said, glaring at the ground, turning away from Pargan's speech and the unicorn's immortal eyes. "She can't turn cream into butter. But she can make a lion look like a manticore to eyes that want to see a manticore. Just as she'd put a false horn on a real unicorn," he looked up at the graceful white prince. "To make them see the unicorn." 

The unicorn blinked, watching the young mans' incredible blue eyes rise to meet his own. "I know you," the boy said. No, young man, the unicorn decided.

"If I were blind I would know who you are." The unicorn felt almost touched by the human's frankness. But also unnerved. There was something about the young man that set him off-ease.

"Who are you?" He asked, quietly shifting from one cleft hoof to another.

Heero gave a silent sigh, and with a stiff, guarded flourish, drew the hat from his head and bowed. 

"I am called Schmendrick, the magician. You may call me Heero, as my given name is such." He stood straight again. "I. . .entertain. . ." the word was laced with disgruntled nausea it seemed, "the sightseers as they gather for the show. Not much of a job for a real magician and soldier, but I've. . .had worse." The young man noticed the unicorn's eyes drift to the right.

"That one," the quiet, regal voice stated. "That one is real. That is the Harpy Une." Heero nodded, practically void of emotion. Completely void of fear.

"Yes. Dorosama caught her much the same way she did you. Asleep. She could never have taken such a creature had it been awake." The unicorn watched the caged harpy. Heero continued.

"She would never have meddled with a real harpy." A pause. "Or a real unicorn, for that matter." The unicorn gave his attention back to the blue eyed magician.

"Because the truth melts her magic," the severe young man stated. "Always." The harpy cawed out maliciously, two brown eyes glinting dangerously at all around it.

"She plans to free herself very soon now," Heero stated. "She must not catch you still caged." The unicorn blinked at the stoic boys near-concern.

"Get away from there." Pargan's voice snapped over the grounds. Heero and the unicorn both looked his way. "You know what she told you!"

Heero just nodded in an awkwardly formal manner to the unicorn. "Do not be afraid," he warned in his quiet, pleasantly nasal voice. "I'll protect you. Do nothing until you hear from me." He strode away with a glare to Pargan, than the ground. The unicorn watched after him, but had his attention torn back to the gathering crowd.

"The unicorn," Pargan whispered to the crowd, standing back so the villagers could move in.

The unicorn looked back at the empty eyes of the common people, the children who stood, struck with awe, the older men who admired the fine creature behind the bars, not comprehending. . .the girl who merely watched the unicorn as tears rolled down both her fair white cheeks. 

The unicorn felt something akin to unease at the thought that they were so deeply moved by cheap magic. The false, wicked looking horn on his forehead shone briefly. He wanted to leave. . .

Pargan stood with his usual unreadable expression- unreadable namely because one could not see his eyes or mouth, but I suppose that is neither here nor there- and stood still, at that. Barely moved for breathing. He was watching the harpy with silent, quaking fear.

"I do not believe," he stated dryly, "That even with a thousand spells upon her, she will remain caged. Even now she watches us, Miss Dorothy, watches us and plots the thrillion ways she will kill us. Get rid of the harpy." Dorothy snorted and her crow merely readjusted its wings.

"Foolish man, be _still_." She placed her hands on her hips, shaking her long blond tresses out behind her. "No other witch in the world holds a harpy captive, and none ever will." The young woman's smirk widened. "I choose to keep her! I can turn her into wind if she escapes, or snow! Or into seven notes of music!" But as her voice escalated so did Une's natural fury surge, and the harpy viciously flapped her huge wings, stirring up clouds of dust and shaking the cage that held her.

Pargan had the uncanny habit of disappearing quickly, which with a cry of "She's escaping. . !" he did. Even Dorothy's unshakable crow looked agitated and cawed in alarm. But Dorothy held her ground. The slight figure spread the fingers on each hand, and held her arms out to the harpy. She was nothing but confident in her spells, and cast them with a cold eye.

"No. . .Not yet. Not yet! You are mine, Harpy Une. If you kill me, you will still be mine." The harpy quieted, ceased the flapping of her wings. The young witch smiled, satisfied, and ran her fingertip along one exotic eyebrow. She almost giggled.

"The harpy," she stated with a small chuckle, turning to the unicorn, "is as real as you are. Just as immortal. And," another flip of the long blond wave, over her shoulder. It fanned and swayed behind her, dramatically. The crow re-perched on her shoulder. "She was just as easy to capture."

The unicorn frowned with his eyes, lightly bowing his head. The young girl who commanded simple witchcraft. . .Her attitude was distasteful. 

"Do not boast about such a thing. Your death sits in that cage, and she hears you."

Dorothy laughed outright, waving a dismissive hand. "Oh, she'll kill me one day or another. But! She will always remember that it was I who caught her. I who held her prisoner! So," She shrugged, clasping both hands behind her back. "There's my immortality, eh?" She strode to half an arms length from the unicorn's cage. 

"Now you, my dear prince," she smiled thinly. "You were out on the road hunting for your own death. And _I_ know where it awaits you. I know him." She paused. "That one." The unicorn's eyes lit with hope, with anxiety and excitement.

"Do you speak of the monster called Epyon? Tell me if you do! Where he is- if you know!" Dorothy raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms across her ribcage.

"Epyon, the creature kept by Lord Dekim. So, you know of it." She shrugged flippantly. "Well, no matter. He'll certainly not have you. You belong me." The unicorn's eyes dulled. He shook his head.

"You know better, Dorothy. Keep your poor shadows if you will, but let me go." He looked up, past Dorothy, to Une. "And let her go. I can't stand seeing her caged! She is real. . ." His voice quieted. "Like me. We are but two sides of the same magic. Let her go." Dorothy's patience was wearing thin.

"I'd quit show business first!" Her hands fisted. "Do you think I don't know what the true witchery is, just because I do what I do? There's not a witch or a sorceress this world over who hasn't laughed at Mother Doro's Homemade horrors! But there's _none_ of them who would have dared!" She smoothed her dress, anger still evident, but controlled. The unicorn's voice was still soft.

"The harpy and I. We are not for you?"

"Who are you for then?!" Dorothy snapped. "Do you honestly think those fools knew you without any help from me? No!" Her eyes glinted with triumph. "I had to give you a _horn_ they could _see_! No one will recognize you, not in this world, not in this age! Not without some cheap carnival trick." She stopped again, smile dulling. "But Epyon. . . He will know you when he sees you. Be sure of that. So!" She smiled more. "You are safer here. You should thank me, my handsome sir," She reached through the bars and ran a finger tip along the unicorn's jaw. He promptly shook his head, feeling deeply shaken by the encounter with the girl. "For protecting you." She laughed quietly, withdrawing her hand and stepping away from the cage, into dusky dull afternoon.

The unicorn's eyes sifted the darkness apart, searching for the sound that was becoming louder. Nighttime was throwing off his senses, for the first time in a long time. But something was definitely approaching.

"Schmendrick is with you." The voice was almost sarcastic. Heero Yuy was in no mood to be spouting his title- or owning up to it- but as it was, he had a clear mission to fulfill. "I'm sorry I couldn't get here sooner," he said matter of factly. He paused, heart thudding once, dully, at the sight of some strange emotion in the unicorn's eyes. Pain? Something like it.

"There has never been a spell on me before," the quiet voice shook. "There has never been a world in which . . .I was not known!" Heero's eyes softened a touch. He refrained from reaching through the bars to comfort the lovely beast. Instead, he let another tiny bit of his usual wall down. What was the use hiding behind silly human masks when one was dealing with an immortal?

"I know exactly how you feel. It is a very rare person who is taken for what he truly is." 

"Will you help me?" The unicorn's voice made the young magician's heart strain. It was a powerful thing, purity. A flash of blond hair. Blue eyes. So young. Completely untainted. But gone.

"If no you, no one," he stated quietly. He shook the memory off. "You're my last chance."

The unicorn shifted quietly from one delicate hoof to another. "Can you truly set me free?"

"Yes, although Dorothy- and most everyone else in this world- would argue that I can't. At least not with my magic. But I am the last of the red-hot swamis-" This earned him an odd look, which he responded to with a tiny blush of embarrassment, "But I too am real, like you, like. . her." He barely motioned towards the Harpy's cage. "Yes, I will help you." At his steadfast determination, the tone of his voice, the unicorn's eyes lit up. Then dulled with worry.

"Where is the other man?" Heero barely smirked.

"Pargan? That old geezer. I gave him a riddle. He'll be busy with it all night. If Dorothy doesn't have him cleaning the manticore stall with a toothbrush. Pathetic, really." He stepped back from the cage and raised his arms.

"Ryoukai. . . Shara sineverel morlin sudai! Suni numira eddi subai!" The unicorn's eyes widened, and he stepped back from the sudden burst of magic that flew from the young man's fingertips. His eyes widened further as he was no longer in his cage, but in his forest! All the creatures, all the beasts he protected, they were all at the edge of the wood! His farewell. His forest. He blinked, stunned, and slowly the mirage faded and the cage returned. The unicorn remembered to breath.

Heero seemed embarrassed, though subtly so. "I. . .I'm sorry. I would have liked that to be the spell that set you free." It was almost comical, the unicorn mused silently, but shook his head. 

"That's okay," Heero said, mostly to himself. "Next on." Cleared his throat. "Urchulis sulai esumina gaminajo! - This is a super-spell." He looked almost embarrassed merely in anticipation of what was next. "The bars are now as brittle as old cheese, which I crumble and scatter, so!" He spread his fingers wide, then grabbed the bars of the cage. Which promptly sizzled.

"Tch-!" He pulled his hands away. They were red and tendrils of stream rose into the air.

The unicorn sweatdropped.

". . . .The accent must have been wrong." The unicorn merely nodded.

". . .It comes and it goes." The unicorn near-pranced in anticipation.

"Try again. One more time! Please, Heero. There's little time left." The boy's eyes darkened, and his jawline set. He nodded, pulling powder from a small pouch, whistling three notes of- music?- something, and released the dust into the air. Quite suddenly, the cage and the bars themselves began shrinking. The unicorn started in alarm, shrinking back, and down.

"Stop the bars! Heero!" Heero's eyes opened, narrowed again, and he muttered low words. The cage stopped.

"I can't. Not again. The next time I might not be able to-" 

"Try again!" The unicorn cut him off, eyes still brimming with hope. Heero's stomach sunk. "The spell may have been wrong, but there was true magic in it. Try again." Heero merely sighed.

"Such a being as yourself deserves the aid of a first rate mage. But I'm afraid you'll have to deal with a second rate pick pocket." He pulled the large ring of keys from his robe's sleeve, and fitted a key to the lion-shaped lock on the cage's door.

The lock became animated, and laughed coldly. "Some magician." The voice sounded suspiciously like Dorosan's. "_Some_ magician!" Heero's eyes narrowed.

"Ah, turn blue. Omae o-"

"What, Heero?"

"Nothing." He threw the lock off, and the door open. "Step down, now, you are free." The unicorn propelled itself from the vile cage, white body shimmering under the full moon that hovered huge overhead. He stepped delicately into the bushes, cloaked, as more footsteps approached and Heero turned quickly towards the other end of the camp. The manservant approached, toothbrush in hand, looking puzzled but for the fact that one cannot determine Pargan's emotions as one can not see his eyes or mouth. Be that as it may.

"I give up, Schmendrick." Heero bristled at the name. "Why is a raven like a writing desk." He stopped. ". . .The cage. You have taken my keys. You thin thief. . ." Heero's eyes narrowed further.

"Dorothy will string you upon barbed wire! To make a necklace for the Harpy!" Heero's voice was sharp. No time for incompetent magicians. This was the perfect soldier's time.

"Run!" The unicorn blinked at the command, and watched as Heero ran after and quite literally jumped Pargan, who was making a break for Mother Dorosan's tent some distance away. The small frame of the young magician plowed into the much larger one of the old manservant, but the unicorn was busy.

Quickly (but not hurriedly) he stepped to each cage and broke the locks with the tip of his horn. His _real_ horn. Then everything bled away into white noise, as he stepped up to the harpy's cage.

Heero looked up, having rather quickly disposed of Pargan's conscious self. His chest constricted in sudden anxiety.

"No! Do not set her free! She will kill you if you do! Run!" The harpy's voice floated into the unicorn's mind, sweet, soft, saint-like.

"Set me free. We are siblings, you and I. Set me free." The unicorn bent his noble head and touched the tip of his horn to the lock, which sparked, and fell.

The Harpy lashed out with its wings, splintering the cage. Heero's eyes widened further. "No. . .!" He struggled to his feet as Dorothy stepped out into the clearing, eyes bright, smile wide. The harpy dived at the unicorn.

He danced backwards, raking his horn across the sky, and the harpy returned to a silhouette against the moon. She collected herself, and dove downwards again, past the unicorn, towards Dorothy.

"Not alone!" The witch cried. "You never could have escaped alone! I held you! I've fought all the beautiful battles with you that I could!" Heero froze as the bird descended, and Dorothy's voice rung out once more. "And I win. I have won this war!" And it was silenced, by the infuriated screech of the harpy.

He could do nothing but stand, looking away from the rather gruesome sight. And then the knowledge of the unicorn's presence returned to his mind. He looked at the white prince, panic surging up again, to be smacked down by the perfect soldier.

"Run," he said, is tone urgent, but controlled. "_Run_." The unicorn merely looked at the young man, eyes crystalline in the moonlight. He did not run.

"Run, run away from here,_ now_." Heero tensed, loathing his helplessness, his inability to save the unicorn if it did not first choose to be saved. He fought any emotion from his face (save a bit of consternation) as the unicorn walked gracefully to him, stopping shortly by his side, and said, "No. Come with me. Come with me," and started towards the bushes. 

Heero paused, as the harpy screeched and there was a ripping sound. But his attention was quickly draw to the white figure ahead of him.

"Don't look back, and don't run." The boy followed the unicorn, as the prince continued, "You must never run from anything immortal, it attracts their attention." Heero dismissed the idea that it was odd for such a young voice to be saying such wise things. 

Behind them, the harpy finished her meal and rose into the sky, circling around the clearing of the now empty and abandoned carnival twice, before turning towards the moon and mountains and disappearing into the night, most probably for the duration of this story.


End file.
